Page 71 - STOLEN LEGACY By George G. M. James

(a) Grote states that Plato has written only those dialogues that bear his name.

(b) Schaarsmidt states that only nine of the 36 dialogues are genuine while

(c) Aristotle considered the Platonic dialogues as nine in number, namely The Laws, Timaeus,
Phaedo, Symposium, Phaedrus, Georgias, Theaetus, Philebus and the Republic, which he
thought are genuine.

(d) Of the remaining 27 dialogues some scholars contend that the youthful dialogues should be
included with the genuine ones, and these are the Apology, Crito, Enthydemus, Laches, Lysis
and Protagoras, and

(e) Of the remaining 21 dialogues scholars suggest that those which were not written by Plato
must have been written by his pupils (B. D. Alexander's Hist. of Phil. p. 68).

(iv) The doctrines of Plato:

The doctrines attributed to Plato are scattered over a wide area of literature: being found in
piecemeal throughout what are called dialogues; but particularly in connection with:

(I) the theory of ideas and its application to natural phenomena which includes the doctrines of
(a) the real and unreal (b) the Nous (mind) and (c) Creation.

(II) the ethical doctrines concerning (A) the highest good (B) definition of virtue and (C) the
cardinal virtues.

(III) the doctrine of the Ideal State whose attributes are compared with the attributes of the soul
and justice. Following this order, they are as follows:

(I) The Theory of Ideas

A. Definition of Ideas. This may be expressed in the following syllogism:

The idea (retaining its unity, unchangeableness and perfection) is the element of reality in a
thing. The idea is the concept by which a thing is known. Therefore the concept by which a thing
is known is the element of reality in a thing (To on). It follows also, that since the concept or idea
of a thing is real, then the concrete thing itself is unreal. (Timaeus 51) (Phaedrus 247).

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